If you really think 190 will have a climb adventage over spit 9 at 23k - think again.
Really fd-ski. I know you love your Spit, but before engaging mouth please ensure brain is in gear.
And please re-read original post. Fw-190 should have climb advantage over Spit IX BETWEEN 15,000 and 23,000 feet. Over 23,000 feet the Spit IX should eat it alive wrt climb rate.
The article quoted was from a magazine titled "WWII Fighters", a publication of Flight Journal.
The article was written by Captain Eric Brown, and as a matter of interest,the editors note to the article reads ...
"During much of WW2, Capt. Eric Brown occupied an intersting and enviable position in that he was the Commanding Officer of Enemy Aircraft Flight - an elite group of pilots whose job it was to test-fly captured German airplanes and evaluate them. As such, Brown is one of the few pilots in the world who can accurately compare the legends as they existed in wartime, rather than doing after-the-fact comparisons. It is with this background that he shares his opinions of the ETO legends - the Spitfire, Bf109, Fw-190 and the Mustang."
The section of the article dealing with the Fw190 reads as follows:
The advent of the Focke-Wulf 190
In the fall of 1941, there appeared in the European skies a serious new threat in the form of the Fw190 - certainly the most advanced fighter in the world at that time. The Spitfire V was now comprehensively outclassed by the newcomer in performance, handling and firepower, but the British antidote eventually arrived in the summer of 1942 when the Spitfire IX was made available to the RAF. This latest Spitfire differed from the Mk. V by having the more powerful Merlin 61 engine with two-speed, two-stage supercharger, a substantial modification to the cooling system, and a four-blade propeller.
At this critical stage in the air war, a significant event happened on June 23, 1942, when a Fw190A-3 was landed intact at an airfield in South Wales; its pilot had become disorientated in combat over the English Channel against Spitfires and believed he was landing at a German base in the Cherbourg peninsula. This war prize was immediately transferred to the RAE and flown extensively by its test pilots, who hoped to unlock its secrets.
The 190 was even more impressive than expected. It had similar performance to the Spitfire IX but had a superior rate of climb between 15,000 and 23,000 feet. It had superb harmony of control, an outstanding rate of roll up to 400mph and a very good all-around view from the cockpit. On the debit side, the 190 had a nasty stall in which, without warning, the left wing would drop violently and the aircraft would almost invert itself. The German fighter had superior acceleration in the dive and generally had an edge over the Spitfire, except in the important matter of performing tight turns. Therefore, the message was clear to Spitfire pilots: fight the 190 in the horizontal plane, for your adversary will favour the vertical one.
This led to cat-and-mouse situatins in combat. I experienced it myself over France in April 1943 when flying a Spitfire IX with a Canadian squadron to escort home a large force of B-17 Fortresses that had bombed a target near Paris. The Forts brought shoals of Fw190s back with them, and a real melee ensued until, suddenly, I found myself apparently alone at 26,000 feet with just one of the 190s slightly above me and ahead. He zoomed up and into a half-roll before diving toward me, and I immediately went into a max-G turn at full power, knowing he would try to follow me around the first third of my turn with his excess speed before trying to break away. However, if I could pull tightly enough, I might tempt him to overstretch himself and spin off the flick stall. I would then follow him comfortably and nail him. But this pilot was no beginner, and he knew just when to half-roll out and dive away, even though he had not taken a shot. From his dive, he zoom-climbed above me again, while I eased my turning circle and was not tempted to follow him vertically. Two similar impasses followed before we both realised we had reached a stalemate and, as if by common consent, we went our separate ways.
I shuld point out that by this time, the Spitfire IX was being re-engined with the Merlin 66, and some versions had clipped wings to improve lateral control, so the slight performance gap was closing on the 190.
In April, May and June 1943, three more intact 190s fell into British hands when they landed at airfields in southeast England as a result of navigational errors. The first two were A-4s and the third was an A-5. As a test pilot at RAE, I did a considerable amount of flying on the first of these A-4s, and this only reinforced my high opinion of the Fw190. There was now little to choose from between the A-4 and the Spitfire IX, and the outcome of aerial combat would lie largely in the skill of the individual pilots.
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C.O. Phoenix Squadron
http://www.users.bigpond.com/afinlayson/index.htm 'feel the heat .......'
[This message has been edited by Jekyll (edited 04-28-2000).]
